Almond Paste (Nissa's Party)

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For Nissa's engagement party, I made Napolitan Petits-Fours. These little colorful sweets are traditionally served in Italian communities around the world for special occasions like weddings or Christmas. They are layered almond paste dough in contrasting colors often dipped in some sort of icing. Beautiful et terribly delicious in my opinion.

Our dear Nawal made a lazy-busy sunday afternoon version the other day, using ready made and ready colored almond paste and even better, no cooking required. Given the occasion or Nissa's party, I chose to make the classic, more elaborate version.

I begin by making my own almond paste. This ingredient is often rather expensive to buy ready made and I had to look closely at the budget for Nissa's unexpected and therefore not really budgeted wedding. The recipe for homemade almond paste is so easy and so much better tasting anyway than the industrial version, I think it really is worth making it.


2 cups (500 nl) sugar
1 cup (250 ml) water
1 pound almond meal (very finely ground almonds)
2 to 4 tablespoons (30 to 60 ml) water
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Bring water and sugar to a boil. Lower the heat to medium-low and simmer until the candy thermometer indicates 250ºF (115ºC).

Remove from heat and immediately add the almond meal with 2 tablespoons water and the extracts. Mix well with a wooden spatula. If the mixture seems really hard, add water 1 tablespoon at a time but no more than 2. The almond paste will harden slightly when cooled.

Allow the almond paste to cool slightly and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Allow to cool totally before using.

This almond paste will keep for ever in the freezer and for at least 3 month in the fridge.

You can make marzipan very simply starting with this almond paste if you wish. Just measure and sift a pound confectionnar sugar and add it a little at a time while kneading until it's all incorporated. You will end up with a lot of marzipan (at a fraction of the cost of the store-bought one) but again, it keeps really a long time.

My next entry will be the recipe for Napolitan Petits-Fours made with the almond paste. I can't post it right now since I should get ready to go out. It's quite an event for me since I seldom had the chance to go out for pleasure since my 3rd and youngest son's birth.

My friend Terri-Lynn treats me to a lunch in an asian restaurant. I don't know which one and which nationality since she only told me "I'll pick you up at 11:30 and we'll go to a good asian restaurant I know". It'll be a suprise.

Recently, I read with lots of pleasure Nawal's article about bloggers taking pictures of their meals in public places. I also admire on a regular basis Kat's adventures in Japan and she takes lots of pictures of what she eats in restaurants and coffee shops. I never had the occasion to picture my meal in a public place. But today I'll take my Kodak and thinking about it, I wonder if Terri-Lynn will be embarrased to be with a blogger photographing her meal or if the restaurant people will react negatively to me taking shots of the plates they serve us.

Well, we'll see...